Finis (well, sort of)

Modern Influence of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum


This section is just a brief note on the continuing influence of the Index. As pointed out in the first post, the Index is regarded by the Church as still having moral force. As a result, the Congregatio pro doctrina fidei (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - see post 3) reserves the right to ban books which it regards to be theologically questionable. Two examples are the banning of the book Mary and Human Liberation by Oblate Father Tissa Balasuriya, and of early works of Jesuit Father Anthony de Mello. In both cases, these works were seen as drawing parallels between Christianity and eastern religions, something which is seen as dangerous by the Church. Similarly, the Jesuit priest Jon Sobrino has also been admonished for his writings. An alternative authority which the Church may decide to use is the right to ban a writer from teaching as a Catholic theologian, as with Father Charles Curran (a moral theologian) or Jesuit Father Roger Haight. These examples show that censorship is still a legitimate weapon in the Church's arsenal for use against doctrines they find to be questionable, heretical or immoral, and show also that the influence of the Index still continues to this day.


The Research Process


Initially, I had just performed a few searches to see what was actually out there. This led me to believe that there would indeed be sufficient material to work with (something that I was not at first sure of), but I also thought that I would need to find more. As I have mentioned in an earlier post (post 2), I put in a formal request at Moonee Valley Libraries for one of the discussion posts, and eventually that led to more information, some of which I had not found at all (and which proved to indispensable for some posts). With the sources I had originally found and those new ones which resulted from the reference request I had enough information for the bulk of the posts. Certain areas though proved to be somewhat murky and I needed to trawl through Wikipedia in some cases - thankfully the information on the Index in Wikipedia is decently sourced, unlike the information in many of the articles, so I felt happier using it than I would have otherwise. There is little more to say other than to comment that I had to read and reread my information many many times to ensure that I had used as much as I could reasonably do so for each post.


The Blogging Experience


I would guess that I would not be alone in saying here that I have never blogged before. I'm not entirely sure what I expected from it, but I have enjoyed the experience. I do not know however whether I will continue blogging or not, as I tend to handwrite most of my various research projects, and I don't think that I would like to discard that in favour of typing, because something is lacking in the use of a keyboard to produce writing when compared to the flow of handwritten script on a page. But that does not change the fact that producing this blog has been a fun experience and I may do it again one day.


References


Schlumpf, H 2010, 'Does the church still ban books?', U.S. Catholic, October 2010, p. 46.